Welker's left knee buckled in the first quarter of the Patriots' loss to the Texans and was in obvious agony upon leaving the field. Reliant Stadium's field is created by assembling trays of natural grass.

“The turf down there is terrible,” Belichick told the radio station. “It's terrible. It's just inconsistent.

“It's all the little trays of grass and some of them are soft and some of them are firm and they don't all fit well together, those seams … some of it feels like a sponge, some of it feels real firm and hard like the Miami surface. One step you're on one, the other step you're on another. I really think it's one of the worst fields I've seen.”

Welker will miss the entire postseason for the Patriots, who open at home against Baltimore on Sunday.